Season To Risk

It's unlikely that Kansas City thud-rock quartet S2R could have found a more appropriate title for their fourth disc. As the name suggests, this record is about destruction; whether it be piercing eardrums or smashing expectations of what rock music should be. Like their peers in the Midwestern scene, Hum and Shiner, and kindred spirits Barkmarket and the Jesus Lizard, S2R meld heavily distorted guitars and vocals with bludgeoning backbeats to create truly ominous music. But it's not all about the racket either, there's actually some melody in here to offset the noise. Unlike their unlistenable third album, Men Are Monkeys, Robots Win, which sounded like it was recorded on a boom box, The Shattering finds them utilising an actual studio and actual engineers to help maximise the impact of their sound. The resulting union with the Blasting Room's Jason Livermore and Bill Stevenson is a sort of orderly chaos set to music; merciless and tremendously affecting. As the special bold-faced notice on the back of the disc reads, play loud.